SYMPT-X G.I. News

WEDNESDAY, June 22, 2016 – Americans spend a good chunk of their health care dollars on alternative medicine, such as acupuncture, yoga, chiropractic care and natural supplements, a new government report shows. In fact, they paid more than $30 billion out of pocket in 2012 on chiropractors and other complementary health practitioners, as well as supplements and other forms of alternative medicine. "Substantial numbers of Americans spent billions of dollars out-of-pocket on these approaches – an indication that users believe enough in the value of these approaches to pay for them," said study co-author Richard Nahin. He is lead epidemiologist at the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Expenditures in 2012 included: $14.7 billion out-of-pocket on visits to complementary practitioners such as chiropractors, yoga instructors, acupuncturists or massage ... Read more

THURSDAY, Oct. 15, 2015 – You may be putting your health at risk if you use imported products such as dietary supplements or nonprescription drugs that are sold at ethnic or international stores, flea markets, swap meets or online. So says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in a warning issued Thursday. Health product scammers often focus their marketing on people who shop at nontraditional locations. They also target consumers with limited English language skills and poor access to health care services, according to Cariny Nunez, a public health adviser in the FDA's Office of Minority Health. "These scammers know that ethnic groups who may not speak or read English well, or who hold certain cultural beliefs, can be easy targets," she said in an FDA news release. Many health product scammers also include the word "natural" on their products because they know it appeals to certain ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 14, 2015 – Side effects from dietary supplements send more than 20,000 Americans to the emergency room each year, a new government study reveals. One expert said the report – published Oct. 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine – should quash arguments that herbal products, amino acids and other supplements are uniformly "safe" and need no tighter regulation. "This is the most important study done on dietary supplements since DSHEA was passed," said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who studies supplement safety. Cohen was referring to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, a 1994 law that defined supplements as food rather than drugs. The upshot is that manufacturers do not have to prove their products have benefits, or are even safe. Over the years, there have been recalls of certain supplements found to cause harm, ... Read more

FRIDAY, Aug. 28, 2015 – Many elderly cancer patients use alternative medicines, including some that could interfere with their treatment, a new study shows. Even though alternative medicines are marketed as "natural," many contain active ingredients that can react with other therapies, the researchers explained. The study authors also found that many of these patients don't tell their doctors they are using complementary or alternative medicines (CAMs). "Currently, few oncologists are aware of the alternative medicines their patients take," study author Ginah Nightingale, an assistant professor at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said in a university news release. "Patients often fail to disclose the CAMs they take because they think they are safe, natural, non-toxic and not relevant to their cancer care, because they think their doctor will disapprove, or because the ... Read more

FRIDAY, Aug. 7, 2015 – Women striving for the "perfect" body have struggled with eating disorders for years, but researchers report that a new sort of eating disorder is emerging among men. Fitness buffs who are obsessed with bodybuilding, and the bulging biceps and "six-pack" abs it produces, are overusing supplements to the point that the practice might qualify as a new kind of eating disorder, the researchers said. A survey found that more than 40 percent of these men indicated that their use of supplements such as whey protein, protein bars, creatine and glutamine had increased over time, said study author Richard Achiro, a Los Angeles psychotherapist. Further, one of every five men said they replaced regular meals with dietary supplements that are not intended to be meal replacements. On the more extreme end, 8 percent of the men said their physician told them to cut back or stop ... Read more